'Write when it hurts. Then write till it doesn't': athlete voice and the lived realities of one female professional athlete. Issue 1 (2nd January 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Kitching, Niamh; Bowes, Ali; Maclaren, Meghan
• Is Part Of: Qualitative research in sport, exercise & health. Volume 13:Issue 1(2021)
• Page Start: 77
• Page End: 93
• Publication Date: 2021-01-02
• Subjects: Blogging -- golf -- media representations -- post-feminism -- professional athlete; Sports sciences -- Research -- Methodology -- Periodicals; Exercise -- Research -- Methodology -- Periodicals; Health -- Research -- Methodology -- Periodicals; 613.71
• DOI: 10.1080/2159676X.2020.1836507
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2159-676X

Abstract

ABSTRACT: Digital media has played a central role in promoting women's sport, where female athletes are increasingly using online platforms to control their own representations and challenge male dominated sporting institutions. Alternatively, some commentators claim that female athletes' use of digital media contributes to patriarchal practices in sport, where through self-promotion and image building they do little to advance representations of women's sport. This paper interrogates these ideas, adopting a postfeminist sensibility and collaborative research approach to examine the online self-representations of a female athlete and blogger. The athlete in question is Meghan MacLaren, a professional golfer on the Ladies' European Tour who documents her life as a professional athlete through her online blog. Primarily, the authors present a critical analysis of MacLaren's blog posts over a period of three years, from MacLaren turning professional to the present day. This initial analysis prompted a series of questions around MacLaren's blogging and self-representations, which the authors then posed directly to her, and Meghan was invited to respond in her own voice. Using a collaborative approach with MacLaren as co-author, this paper seeks to draw attention to the diverging realities of a female professional athlete fulfilling dichotomous identities as a simultaneously trusting and doubting golf performer on the course and a self-appointed athlete activist online, all the while operating in, and influenced by the patriarchal and capitalist cultural environment of golf.